During WWII Congress Took a Dim View of Domestic Propaganda by the Executive Branch Media Agency

Rep. Joe Starnes (D-AL) on OWI domestic propaganda in 1943.

During WWII Congress Took a Dim View of Domestic Propaganda by the Executive Branch Media Agency

By Ted Lipien

In a bipartisan vote in 1943, Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, alarmed about partisan, as well as pro-Soviet and pro-communist propaganda messages produced at taxpayers’ expense by the Office of War Information, almost completely defunded OWI’s domestic operations and reduced funding for VOA’s overseas radio broadcasts.

Congressional concerns were summarized in the House of Representatives on July 1, 1943 by Congressman Joe Starnes, a Democrat from Alabama. ¹ Rep. Starnes was at the same time anti-Fascist and anti-Communist, a racist and a believer in domestic media free from government interference and propaganda.

Despite being a conservative southern Democrat, Rep. Starnes supported most of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal social and economic programs, but he opposed racial integration. In his 1962 obituary, The New York Times noted that at a congressional hearing in 1938, Starnes tried to physically attack Fritz Kuhn, a pro-Nazi leader of the German-American Bund, after Kuhn called him a liar. Kuhn was later stripped of his U.S. citizenship and was deported to Germany after the war.

Congressman Starnes often showed his strong anti-communist streak. He was ridiculed by critics for asking a witness at a congressional hearing whether British playwright Christopher Marlowe, who died in 1593, was a Communist. ²

Opposition to domestic propaganda by the Office of War Information was not limited in the U.S. Congress to Republicans and conservative southern Democrats. Progressive northern Democrats, especially those from districts with large numbers of ethnic voters with family roots in East-Central Europe, who unlike Starnes supported civil rights legislation, were also concerned about pro-Soviet and pro-communist influence within OWI and VOA, as were most Republicans. ³

Only a relatively small number of southern Democrats and some among northern Democrats unquestionably supported the OWI during the war. In 1943, Democratic U.S. Senator from Alabama, J. Lister Hill, who like Starnes was an opponent of civil rights legislation, inserted in the Congressional Record the text of a speech by Democratic U.S. Senator from Utah Elbert D. Thomas, in which Senator Thomas strongly defended the OWI.

Lister Hill (D-AL): “The OWI Is Helping To Win The War” Congressional Record, June 28, 1943.

It is unthinkable that the Congress of the United States will tell the people, who elected its members, that from now on they forbid the American Government to inform the American people of what is being done to win the war. We Americans already know the value of the Office of War Information to us. I know much more today and you know much more today about our military efforts and about every other phase of war activity than we knew a year ago, when the Office of War Information was founded. And it is conceded by all media of news that the Office of War Information is largely responsible for this.

More typical in presenting congressional views about the Office of War Information and its director Elmer Davis in 1943 were comments from the Detroit Free Press newspaper by Malcolm W. Bingay, inserted in the Congressional Record by a progressive Republican congressman from Michigan Roy O. Woodruff:

Rep. Roy O. Woodruff (R-MI) on “Elmer Davis” – Detroit Free Press column by Malcolm W. Bingay, June 16, 1943 in the Congressional Record, June 21, 1943.

Elmer’s popping off again! Yeah, Elmer Davis. Elmer, the dead-pan study in chiaroscuroistic physiognomy with his white hair, gray face, bootblack eyebrows and long black bow tie to synchronize the movements of his Adam’s apple with his thought processes. Yeah, boy! Elmer was born to be an actor and that is the role he is playing now-with plenty of ham. Elmer, as you know, is the chief of that weird hydra-headed monstrosity of governmental mismanagement known as the Office of War Information. No organization was ever so completely misnamed. Information is what you don’t get from Elmer’s vast army of heterogeneous press agents-the greatest collection of intellectual curiosities ever gathered under one roof.

In a speech to the House of Representatives on April 20, 1943, Congressman Woodruff said:

These reports tell us that much of this propaganda follows the American Communist Party line and is designed to prepare the minds of the Polish people to accept partition, obliteration, or suppression of their nation when the fighting ends. The same is true of Yugoslavia, where. I am told, the name of the great Mlhailovitch is blocked out by O. W. I. radicals. I cannot understand why the Director of War Information is feeding Communist propaganda to the American people in regard to the conditions in Yugoslavia.

Prior to the defunding of the Office of War Information Domestic Branch, some of the propaganda broadcasts, as they were often described by OWI, were also redistributed and rebroadcast in the United States. Alarmed by pro-Soviet and pro-communist propaganda being pushed by U.S. government employees on Americans, Senator Robert Taft (R-OH) introduced a resolution demanding that all OWI materials, including Voice of America broadcasts in English and in foreign languages, be made available for inspection by congressional staff and media. Democratic congressman from Michigan John Lesinski Sr. was also warning about Soviet and communist influence over Voice of America wartime broadcasts.

I have followed with a great deal of interest the releases in regard to Yugoslavia, and I cannot understand why the Director of War Information is feeding Communist propaganda to the American people in regard to the conditions in Yugoslavia.

All of these warning turned out to be accurate but were later swept under the rug by Voice of America management. They were forgotten and replaced with self-serving propaganda that the Voice of America never wavered in broadcasting the truth and was never compromised by any foreign agents of influence.

Rep. Joe Starnes turned out to be right on almost all points about the Office of War Information and its pro-Soviet and partisan domestic propaganda, but he was wrong in his charge that the Domestic Branch of the Office of War Information employed too many aliens.

The chief objections and criticisms leveled against the Domestic Operations Branch of the Office of War Information may be briefly summarized as follows:

 

1. Poor administration, resulting in increase of personnel and expense of operation.

 

2. The employment of too many aliens.

 

3. The failure to properly collect, coordinate, and channel information so as to eliminate confusion and uncertainty over conflicting statements being issued by the Office of Price Administration, the Petroleum Administration for War, and other agencies.

 

4. The issuance of propaganda on strictly domestic issues.

 

5. Colorization of news by improper analyses and interpretation.

 

6. Attempts to censor and control press releases.

 

7. The unusual number of requests for deferment from military services of eligible men—more than 50 percent of the male employees of the Office of War Information being between the ages of 18 and 38.

 

8. The failure to reduce personnel to help relieve a critical manpower shortage for the armed services, war industries, and food production.

Most of the non-U.S. citizens at OWI worked for the Voice of America. Hiring aliens was not the source of the many problems outlined by Rep. Starnes in his speech inserted into the Congressional Record. VOA had to employ individuals with up-to-date foreign language and broadcasting skills. There were not enough U.S. citizens to fill this need. It was an immigrant journalist Julius Epstein, a refugee from Nazi Germany employed during the war in the Office of War Information, who later exposed Voice of America’s pro-Stalin propaganda and VOA’s early coverup of Soviet genocide crimes. ⁴

The root cause of most problems and scandals during VOA’s early years was the ideological and partisan leadership of the Office of War Information. OWI officials were easily influenced and manipulated by Soviet propaganda. At the senior level, the U.S. executive branch propaganda agency was dominated during World War II by pro-Soviet fellow travelers, almost all of whom were U.S.-born. They in turn employed many U.S.-born communist sympathizers, as well as pro-Soviet aliens who were hired during World War II without sufficient security checks. ⁵

One of the American Communists with a high-level position at the Voice of America was VOA’s first chief English news writer and editor Howard Fast who later joined the Communist Party USA.

Fast was a U.S.-born American citizen. After leaving VOA in 1944 under pressure from the FBI, he spent three months in a Federal prison in the early 1950s, having been found guilty of contempt of Congress. In 1953, Howard Fast received the Stalin International Peace Prize, which was worth at that time $25,000 (about $250,000 in 2021 dollars). ⁶ As a Communist Party activist and journalist, Fast opposed racism and supported civil rights in the United States, but until 1956 he remained an admirer of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (who died in 1953) and continued to embrace and promote the Kremlin’s propaganda campaigns even after leaving the Communist Party.

A well-meaning but extremely naive as a journalist, Fast refused to believe until 1956 that Stalin was like Hitler, a mass murderer. He changed his mind about Stalin after hearing Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s speech at the 20th Soviet Communist Party Congress, but he remained a loyal supporter of Communism and Soviet Russia. ⁷

While working for the Voice of America during the war, Fast, who was also a best-selling fiction writer, and his friends in VOA’s foreign language services covered up Stalin’s crimes. Some of Fast’s friends employed in VOA foreign language services went back to Europe after the war and worked as anti-U.S. propagandists or diplomats for Soviet-dominated communist regimes. ⁸

Thanks to Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress who defunded the OWI’s Domestic Branch, pro-Soviet Office of War Information propaganda messages could no longer easily reach Americans for the rest of the war. There was no longer any public money for printing massive numbers of government pamphlets and producing new OWI propaganda films, such as those justifying the illegal internment of American citizens of Japanese origins. Most Americans did not listen to shortwave radio transmission of Voice of America English and foreign language broadcasts.

Today’s Voice of America output can, however, be seen by Americans on the web, including social media. In recent years, a Republican candidate for U.S. presidency was called “pig” and similar insulting names in a VOA web-posted program without any balance or context. In 2020, VOA also posted a video in support of a Democratic presidential candidate. Partisan messages during FDR’s presidency were minor compared to today’s violations of journalistic ethics and breaches of the VOA Charter, which by law forbids such domestic partisan propaganda in Voice of America programs. Some of the Agency officials, under whose watch most of these recent abuses have occurred, are still in charge of government news media operations or are even proposed for higher-level government positions. During World War II they would have been exposed in Congress and would have lost their jobs for much lesser attempts to manipulate domestic public opinion with government-paid partisan propaganda.

Many of the pro-Soviet sympathizers and Communists were recruited by VOA’s first director John Houseman, a future Oscar-winning Hollywood actor, who in mid-1943 was quietly forced to resign by the Roosevelt administration. ⁹

Most of the other pro-Soviet fellow travelers employed by the Voice of America during the war and for a few years after the war were forced to resign by the Democratic administration of President Truman. ¹⁰ They were replaced by anti-communist refugee broadcasters from East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. One of them was Zofia Korbońska, the legendary anti-Nazi radio operator in German-occupied Poland. ¹¹ She and other refugee journalists helped to bring down communism in East Central Europe, but it required many decades of broadcasting uncensored news. Unfortunately, even during the Cold War, some pro-Soviet censorship reappeared at times in some VOA programs. The Democratic Truman administration, however, also created Radio Free Europe (RFE), which together with Radio Liberty (RL), was more effective than VOA in countering Soviet propaganda.

In his 1943 radio address, Congressman Starnes was mistaken in his praise of OWI director Elmer Davis. While Davis got rid of some of the Communists on the VOA payroll, he allowed other Soviet sympathizers to stay. Davis himself repeated Soviet propaganda lies, not only in VOA broadcasts, but also in his guest programs on U.S. domestic radio networks. In a congressional testimony taken under oath in 1952, he showed contempt toward his critics in Congress and toward East European immigrants who criticized Voice of America programs for supporting Communists and Soviet control over Eastern Europe.

Another point, which Congressman Starnes got wrong, was the OWI-promoted claim that its propaganda helped to shorten the war. In reality, both Nazi Germany and Japan fought until their military defeat was imminent. Later in the Cold War, the Voice of America did contribute to the fall of communism in some countries, but it took several decades of broadcasting news and commentaries no longer significantly tainted by Soviet propaganda lies.

Rep. Joe Starnes on “The Work of the OWI” in Congressional Record July 1, 1943.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
78th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION
APPENDIX
PAGES: A3351-A3352

The Work of O. W. I.
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF
HON. JOE STARNES
OF ALABAMA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday. July 1, 1943

Mr. STARNES of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the RECORD, I include the following radio address delivered by me on June 29, 1943:

My fellow Americans. Executive Order No. 9182, dated June 19, 1942 established the Office or War Information within the Office of Emergency Management in the Executive Office of the President. The existing agencies handling foreign and domestic information which were consolidated to form the Office of War Information were:

a. The Office of Facts and Figures and its powers and duties.

b. The Office of Government Reports and its powers and duties.

c. That part of the former Office of the Coordinator of Information which related to the gathering or public information and its dissemination abroad,

d. The Division of Information of the Office for Emergency Management.

The chief purpose in establishing the Office of War Information was to gather and disseminate information at home and abroad concerning the war. Specifically the Executive order outlined its purpose in the following language in section 4:

“Consistent with the war information policies of the President and with the foreign policy of the United States, and after consultation with the Committee on War Information Policy, the Director shall perform the following functions and duties:

“a. Formulate and carry out, through the use or press, radio, motion picture, and other facilities, information programs designed to facilitate the development of an informed and intelligent understanding, at home and abroad, of the status and progress of the war effort and of the war policies, activities, and aims of the Government.

“b. Coordinate the war information activities of all Federal departments and agencies for the purpose of assuring and accurate and consistent flow of war information to the public and the world at large.

“c. Obtain, study and analyze information concerning the war effort and advise the agencies concerned with the dissemination of such information as to the most appropriate and effective means of keeping the public adequately and accurately informed.

“d. Renew, clear, and approve all proposed radio and motion picture programs sponsored by Federal departments and agencies, and serve as the central point of clearance and contact for the radio-broadcasting and motion-picture industries, respectively, in their relationships with Federal departments and agencies concerning such Government programs.

“e. Maintain liaison with the information agencies of the United Nations for the purpose of relating the Government’s informational programs and facilities to those of such nations.

“f. Perform such other functions and duties relating to war information as the President may from time to time determine.”

The Office or War Information for administrative and functional purposes has been divided into overseas operations branch and a domestic operations branch. Wide use of press, radio, and motion-picture has been made to carry out its program.

Certainly there is need for an overseas operations branch to let our allies the neutral countries know what we are doing and can do to win this war. Furthermore, the psychological warfare of President Wilson used so successfully in World War No. 1 in breaking the morale of the German people and paving the way to an early peace was well worth while and we hope the Office of War Information can successfully emulate it in this war. Recent history has shown that the press, radio, and motion picture can be highly successful in breaking the morale of governments and their people. Hitler and Hirohito have gained easy end spectacular victories by their use in disseminating propaganda in the Balkans, the Low Countries, France, and the Far East. We would be foolish indeed if we failed to employ the same weapon against Germany and Japan. Recent signs show that our campaign in Germany and elsewhere in Europe is bearing fruit. It may help to shorten the war appreciably if we continue to tell the German people how destructive our air raids have been to their industrial facilities and how we are prepared and determined to use this effective instrument of destruction to blast their industries, their arsenals, and their submarine lairs to dust.

No effort was made by the House recently to reduce the amount of expenditures from the overseas operations branch below that recommended by the Appropriations Committee.

The Domestic Operations Branch has not functioned as well as the Overseas Brunch. Instead or collecting, coordinating, and channeling factual information on the home front, it has provided a subject of debate and controversy within its own group, in the press, and over the radio, as well as in the public forum.

The Director of the Office of War Information Mr. Elmer Davis, a member of the American Labor Party in New York City. Mr. Davis enjoys a splendid reputation as a writer and radio commentator. He is a man of pleasant personality and undoubted personal integrity. However, he is one of the first to admit mistakes have been made in the Domestic Operations Branch and that poor administrative work has been of no help. Furthermore, he admits some of the pamphlets and publications of the Office of War Information have dealt with domestic problems in other than a factual manner. Their admission justifies that it was indulging in propaganda or a colorization of news on the home front.

The consolidation of the four agencies bringing into being the Office of War Information has not resulted in noticeable efficiency of operation and on the contrary has increased the cost of operation.

In the last year of operation of the four constituent agencies they cost approximately $10,400,000. Under the first year of the Office of War Information this amount was increased to $35,847,292, or more than three times the amount originally spent. The Domestic Operations Branch rather than effecting a reduction in cost or personnel increased both. The monetary Increase was over 100 percent, or from approximately $4,000,000 to more than $8,000,000. The personnel increase requested raised the number from 3,253 to 4,407. In the fiscal year 1944 the Office of War Information asked for $47,342,000 and an increase of personnel to 5,438.

The sum of $8,865,900 was requested for the Domestic Operations Branch in 1944, which was a sizable increase over the amount available for 1943. The House Appropriations Committee trimmed the over-all request by $12,869,496. The amount recommended by the committee for the Domestic Operations Branch was $5,500,00 or a reduction of 37 percent. The amendment which I offered from the floor struck this amount from the bill.

Exhaustive and searching hearings on every phase of the Office of War Information were held, covering several days in time and almost 400 pages of printed testimony. The House, when presented with the facts, adopted my amendment by roll-call vote of 218 to 114.

The chief objections and criticisms leveled against the Domestic Operations Branch of the Office of War Information may be briefly summarized as follows:

1. Poor administration, resulting in increase of personnel and expense of operation.

2. The employment of too many aliens.

3. The failure to properly collect, coordinate, and channel information so as to eliminate confusion and uncertainty over conflicting statements being issued by the Office of Price Administration, the Petroleum Administration for War, and other agencies.

4. The issuance of propaganda on strictly domestic issues.

5. Colorization of news by improper analyses and interpretation.

6. Attempts to censor and control press releases.

7. The unusual number of requests for deferment from military services of eligible men—more than 50 percent of the male employees of the Office of War Information being between the ages of 18 and 38.

8. The failure to reduce personnel to help relieve a critical manpower shortage for the armed services, war industries, and food production.

Certainly we could not sustain our population at home and our fighting forces abroad on the mental diet furnished by the propaganda of the Office of War Information on domestic issues.

The American people know why we are at war. Their Congress has appropriated over $300,000,000,000 for war purposes since July 1, 1940. Their sons are fighting on the seven seas, on far-flung battle lines which encircle the globe, and in the skies over every continent. Unprecedented taxes have been levied upon them to finance this war. Sacrifices, service, sorrow, and travail is our lot until we have finished the task of destroying the military power of the Axis which threatens all we hold dear. The American people are determined that nothing deter them from this task. They know who we are fighting, why we are fighting, and for what we are fighting. They need no ministry of propaganda to censor press releases on domestic programs. They need no group of propagandists to preach state socialism at Government expense. I challenge any listener or protagonist of the administration or the Domestic Operations Branch to cite a single worth-while contribution made to our armed forces or to our people on the home front by the character and context of the domestic propaganda foisted upon us by pamphlets and publications printed and distributed at Government expense. Much of this work is an affront to our intelligence and our patriotism.

A free, untrammeled press is one or the most potent arms of a democracy. It is a tower of strength for a free people. We have a free press which can be relied upon to faithfully, accurately, and fairly report upon the doings of the Congress and the executive branch or the Government. The people can be relied upon to act intelligently when facts are fairly presented. Censorship of the press and colorization or the news on domestic policies by a centralized Government agency blanket the fires of freedom burning on the hearthstones of our people. I repeat, America needs no Goebbels sitting in Washington to tell the American press what to publish or the American people why we are at war. America needs no Virginio Gayda sitting in Washington to hand down tinged news on domestic policies or to influence our thoughts actions.